[Woodworkers] Best Lathe

[chuck.steger at gmail.com]

   At the first of the year I jubilantly declared that I had cut a burl at Christmas and was going to turn my first burl. I prepared the burl to a rough diameter of 14” and it weighed around 25 lbs. (it’s now around 17 lbs.). I knew I had to slow my lathe down for something of that size and weight. I have a Grizzly G0462 that is supposed to go from 600 rpm to 2400 rpm. I bought it used and, quite frankly, it never went below 1200 rpm. I wasn’t doing bowls so my speed range worked. Now, however, I need it to go slow. Several calls to Grizzly and several builds and rebuilds since then and I can’t slow it down. Now obviously I haven’t worked on it non-stop since January (this thing called life) but I just tried by last hail-Mary after talking to Grizzly. We both agreed if this didn’t work, it wasn’t going to work. It didn’t and they can’t tell me why.

   So, I’m on to plan B – a new lathe. I bought it used for $250 so I figure I can sell this discounted for $100 with a full disclosure that it will only drop to 1100 rpm (I did manage a 100 rpm drop 😊). Does that sound fair?

   But my main question is what lathe to buy? I always said my next lathe would be my last lathe so I’m willing to spend the bucks. When I first got into woodworking (many moons ago), Oneway was the king of lathes. But now I see Powermatic is good. Scott Phillips uses a Rikon that looks pretty cool. Anyway, what say you? If you wanted the ultimate lathe, what would you buy? I’m willing to dish out some cash if I think it’s worth it. I see where Powermatic sells one for $10,500 but it would have to turn the wood for me 😊. 

 

Chuck

 

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